Lately, I have been reading quite a lot about OpenStack and all the buzz around neutron and SDN. You would find many links and a plethora of information online. This post is an effort to highlight or describe in simple words, the role of OpenStack neutron in connection to SDN. So without wasting any time, lets start.
We all know that Neutron is the OpenStack's project to offer Network as a Serivce - NaaS. Neutron started as a separate project after it was separated from nova-network.
With the growing interest in OpenStack, a lot of companies are making efforts to integrate their SDN solutions with OpenStack.
How are they (companies) doing it ?
The above figure is the answer to what the companies are doing. The top layer is the application layer which calls the neutron service APIs(1). The neutron service APIs are the APIs which are exposed to OpenStack services, say horizon (For example, when you do some network configuration from the OpenStack GUI).
Between the neutron service API and physical layer, lies the neutron plugin.
To write a neutron plugin, the vendor/company/individual should adhere with the below rule:
1. Implement the interface called by Neutron service APIs(3).
Thus, at any point, interface 1 remains unchanged and the network function is realized using the same APIs - the neutron service APIs. This helps in keeping the application logic independent of the actual networking hardware.
Additionally, if a vendor wants to provide some additional functionality, he can provide several high-level APIs(2) via the API extension layer. These APIs also interact with the neutron plugin(3) to realize a high-level APIs(2) on the hardware. Using this, a vendor X can also integrate his switches with OpenStack solution.
Companies are thus integrating their SDN solutions with OpenStack by means of neutron plugin. Refer this link to know more about various solutions available.
No comments:
Post a Comment